Analysis: Can We Talk? By Beverly Daniel Tatum, Color Blind Racism

The sentencing disparity for drug use by race is disproportionate for African Americans because of The War on Drugs. Matthew Lassiter (2015) explains, “In 1951, Harry Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, collaborated with senate of criminal investigations to target black ‘dope peddlers’ who were luring pretty white blondes into drug addiction”(2015:128). According to Lassiter (2015), Anslinger believed that peddlers, who destroyed teenagers’ lives, required the most sever punishment (2015:129). Using this rhetoric, presidents like Nixon and Reagan would shape the way drug laws are enforced.

Growing up, in school all we really learned about the struggles of black people were slavery and segregation. It was glossed over and glammed up to seem as if once the Civil Rights movement was over African Americans received equal rights and then everyone held hands and sang Kumbaya. This is far from the truth, since the end of slavery in 1865 up until now in 2017, African Americans still deal with intolerance and do not receive equal rights. Carol Anderson has written a book that is extremely powerful, yet infuriating and depressing. Anderson does a fantastic job of showcasing the systematic oppression of African Americans throughout history.

Race has always been a problem in America and other countries. But developments such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) has helped challenge race and racial power and its representation in American society. Articles such as Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; White Privilege, Color, and Crime: A Personal Account by Peggy McIntosh have helped CRT develop further. Along with the documentary White Like Me by filmmaker Tim Wise. These articles and film explore the race and racism in the United States, along with critical race theory. In this paper, I will be critiquing these articles and films in order to evaluate the purpose of these readings and how they have helped further develop race in America. But most importantly, whether the author has achieved its purpose to inform readers about CRT, whiteness, and racial inequality.

White privilege is a systemic issue that has roots in our history as far back as the creators of our country. Searching back, we see our norms and values created into habits that have been woven into how we view and act around specific groups such as African Americans. This essay is going to explain how the average Caucasian individual experiences white privilege on a day to day basis and the solutions to insure that white privilege will stop and true equality can be handed out. This paper views the latter issues through symbolic interactionism, with supporting sub theories such as; labeling theory, looking glass self, and selective perception.

Scott Kurashige’s The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles exposes its’ readers to the history of race and politics in the city of Los Angeles, California. In his research, the author describes the political history of Japanese and Black Americans in LA by discussing the interethnic cooperation and competition each group faced while dealing with bigoted and racist beliefs and challenges that white people threw their way. Kurashige’s research focuses most on how these two racial groups at Little Tokyo/Bronzeville produce entirely different responses to the political sphere around them after World War II. The author shows how the African Americans in this city were trapped in the lower

In the article, Has America Given Up on the Dream of Racial Integration by Alana Semuels, the author uses testimonies to strengthen her argument that cities today are still segregated. She mainly refers to Beaumont in Texas. One example of using a personal testimony is the author used the quote from Janice Brassard, “This town is caught in the 1950s,” to imply that Beaumont is still stuck in the Civil Rights era. They live with racism and discrimination which proves her claim of “Has America given up on racial integration?” According to John Henneberg, a fair-housing advocate, the government and authority won’t interfere unless there is a big problem. Yet the highways split Beaumont into three sections. The north and south side are poor, 79%

White privilege is an ongoing societal issue that benefits white people, giving them an upper hand in situations where non-white people would not get the same treatment. For example, when walking down the street, a white person walks freely without concern of being stopped. Someone who is not white doesn’t have the same luxury. Authority stops them just because of their appearance. Tim Wise asked law enforcement what they thought of a black male driving a nice car in a nice neighborhood versus a white male in the same situation. Without hesitation, they said they assume the black male is a drug dealer, while the white male is just a spoiled little rich kid. As Wise put it, white people are “not suspected, therefore we are not detected. Therefore,

Campus Racism 101 is an article written by Nikki Giovanni that speaks of her struggles

A historical great piece of literary art, “A Worn Path” published in 1941, is a story of an old woman’s journey to town through the forest. The setting is rural Mississippi in the 1940’s, a time when racism was a way of life and a trip to town, especially for an old black woman, was often a long journey and thus a trip not often taken. The old woman’s name is Phoenix Jackson and she has quite an adventurous trip through the forest to town. One is made to believe this is just an average walk down the path for this old woman; however the reader is entertained by Phoenix’s mannerisms and realizes there is deeper meaning of the story. This story, though short in length, host an abundance of symbolism, racial issues

During the documentary I felt largely uncomfortable. Primarily because it is the first time I have really questioned being white. I know my race, I have filled out multiple questionnaires but I have never sat down and thought what it meant to be white. White privilege does exist, and it is not uncommon. This documentary really shed light on major issues that are happening in the world today. One thing that stood out to me was the word ghetto. When that young woman broke down in tears because of the joking that surrounded the word, I realized how much I have said in my life that really could be taken offensively. Although in that context they did not intend to cause emotional distress for her, she still felt deeply about the misuse of the word. I realize now after

Throughout history differences have created wars. We form us versus them categories. People who aren’t like us get placed in this them category. Fights, even wars, have been a product of these differences. These differences can range from just the college you attend to how you speak and look. In the essay, “It Takes a Tribe,” Berreby goes into depth about the hierarchy in college campuses. In a different essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language,” Baldwin goes into detail about how we group others based on their language, specifically in black culture. Both authors discuss how humans are identified by what tribes they are associated with. Berreby discusses how we subconsciously put ourselves and others into groups, while Baldwin claims that

When reading the introduction from the text “Critical Race Theory Matters,” I learned some of the main principles that are discussed are that race, history, voice, interpretation, and praxis matters. First, race matters are a central structure of society nowadays and is believed that it isn’t as important because racism has been illegal for many years. “Critical race theorists (2011) believe that not only does racial inequality continue to be embedded in the legal system, but that racial inequality permeates every aspect of social life from minute, intimate relationships, to the neighborhoods we live in, and the schools we go to, all the way to the macro-economic system” (p. 3). The idea that race no longer matters clearly states that racial

African American Studies was a great experience. Has opened my eyes to my surrounding and the world around me. This course with Dr. Sheba Lo, was something out of me confront zone. I learned so many things from race to cultural to the importance aspect of African American. We are isolated to an environment that hide so much history that we all don’t think they are important to who we have become. I know just from being from a certain race people believe that sometimes that defines us as a whole. There is always a race being discriminated, oppressed and even treated unequally. I clearly understood that taking this course opened me up to the different events. It is really difficult to see that we live in this environment even though many whose

Race, gender and class shape the experience of all people. Because of their simultaneity in people's lives we advocate using the approach of a "matrix of domination" to analyze race, class, and gender as different but interrelated axes of social structure. The matrix of domination or matrix of oppression is a sociological paradigm that explains issues of oppression that deal with race, class, and gender, which, though recognized as different social classifications, are all interconnected. This structural pattern affects individual consciousness, group interaction, and group access to institutional power and privileges. In the Disney movie, Aladdin, both status and gender affect positions in the matrix of domination, but an analysis of the

Source: Boundless. “The Functionalist Perspective.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 13 Jun. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/race-and-ethnicity-10/sociological-perspectives-on-race-and-ethnicity-83/the-functionalist-perspective-484-6546/